A proper induction means a new trustee has the governing document, recent minutes, current accounts, and the key policies within their first few weeks, plus a clear declaration of any conflicts of interest and a check that they're not disqualified from acting (barred by law from being a trustee at all). No single law requires "induction" by that name — but the Commission's welcome pack sets the standard, and the checklist and table below turn it into a three-month plan, whether you're giving the papers out or still waiting for them.
What "induction" actually means for a small charity board
There's no law that says a charity must run a formal induction programme for new trustees. What exists instead is a clear expectation, set out in the Charity Commission's own welcome pack for new trustees: understand the charity's purposes, its governing document — the constitution, articles of association, or trust deed that sets out how it's run — and its finances, and be ready to ask questions, "particularly on things you are unclear about."
That's a low bar to write down and a surprisingly common one to miss. Many small charity boards hand a new trustee nothing more than a meeting invitation and a login. There's a reasonable middle ground: a welcome pack of documents, a conversation with the chair, and a few weeks (the Commission's own phrasing) to get properly oriented — this guide treats roughly three months as a sensible outer limit for that process to be complete, not because any regulator says so, but because beyond that point a trustee is voting on decisions they haven't been given the context to understand.
If your board has never done this formally, that's fixable starting today — see the checklist below.
Before you're eligible: the disqualification check
This part is genuinely legal, not just good practice. Charity law sets a minimum age for trustees — 16 if the charity is a company or a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), 18 otherwise — and a list of situations that automatically disqualify someone from acting as a trustee at all. The main ones: an undischarged bankruptcy or active insolvency arrangement, unspent convictions for certain offences (including dishonesty or deception), and being on the sex offenders register — the full list is in the Commission's guidance. The Commission's guidance is blunt about the consequence: "It is normally an offence to act whilst disqualified." Waivers exist in some circumstances, but they have to be applied for — disqualification isn't something a board can simply decide to overlook.
This applies to charities based in England and Wales; Scottish and Northern Irish charities sit under different regulators with their own rules, covered in the scope note at the end.
In practice, this means the disqualification declaration should happen before someone starts acting as a trustee, not as a formality tidied up weeks later. It's page one of induction, not a footnote.
The printable induction checklist
Copy this into whatever your board already uses — a shared document, an email, or a printed sheet. Three bands, roughly matching the natural rhythm of joining a board. And if you're the new trustee rather than the organiser, read every box as "has this arrived yet?" — anything missing by the times shown is yours to ask for, tonight if you like.
Before the first meeting
- Confirm the new trustee isn't disqualified from acting (age, bankruptcy, unspent convictions — see above)
- Send the governing document (constitution, articles, or trust deed)
- Send the last two sets of approved minutes
- Send the current year's accounts or latest management accounts
- Send the safeguarding policy, if the charity works with children or vulnerable adults
- Send the conflicts-of-interest policy
- Add the new trustee's details to the Charity Commission register (or note who will, and by when)
- If the charity is a company, start the Companies House notification (form AP01, the standard notify-a-new-director form — see below)
First 4 weeks
- Hold a short welcome conversation with the chair or an experienced trustee — purposes, current priorities, how meetings run
- Record the trustee's first entry in the register of interests
- Sign the disqualification declaration, if your charity uses one
- Share the code of conduct or trustee behaviour policy, if you have one
- Point to a welcome pack or "how we work" summary, even a one-page version
- Confirm the trustee has attended (or has a date for) their first board meeting
By month 3
- Check the trustee has read (or been talked through) the six legal duties of a charity trustee (CC3a)
- Confirm they understand the charity's main income sources and biggest financial risk
- Ask directly: "Is there anything nobody's explained yet?"
- Review whether any additional training is needed (finance, safeguarding, chairing)
- Confirm the Charity Commission register update actually went through
Fifteen lines, three sittings. Nobody needs to do all of it in one evening.
Who gives you what
This is the piece most induction advice skips: whose job is each item. If you're the new trustee and something on this list hasn't turned up, this table is your polite, specific way of asking for it.
| Document or task | Who provides it | Why you need it |
|---|---|---|
| Governing document | Chair or secretary | Sets out how your charity is actually run — overrides any "normal" rule you've seen elsewhere |
| Last 2 sets of approved minutes | Secretary | Shows you what's already been decided, so you're not voting on something you're missing context for |
| Current accounts | Treasurer | You share responsibility for the charity's finances from your first meeting |
| Safeguarding policy | Chair or safeguarding lead | Tells you what's expected of you if the charity works with children or vulnerable adults |
| Conflicts-of-interest policy | Chair or secretary | Explains how your board handles the declarations covered below |
| Register-of-interests entry | You, recorded by the secretary | Your first formal declaration — starts the record from day one |
| Disqualification declaration | You, held by the secretary | Confirms in writing that you're legally eligible to act |
| Charity Commission register update | Chair or secretary | A legal requirement for registered charities whenever trustees change |
| Companies House AP01 (if a company) | Secretary or company officer | A separate legal filing — see below; only applies if your charity is a company |
| Code of conduct or welcome pack link | Chair or whoever holds it | Sets expectations for behaviour and gives you a single reference point instead of scattered emails |
If you're inducting someone: work down the "who provides it" column and assign each row to a name, not a role, this week. If you're the new trustee: this table is what you're entitled to ask for, in these words, without it being awkward.
Declaring interests: the register's first entry
The Commission's guidance on conflicts of interest (CC29) is specific about timing: declare an interest early, before there's any discussion of the matter, not partway through or afterwards. For a new trustee, that means starting a register-of-interests entry in your first few weeks, even if it's blank beyond your name — memberships, other trusteeships, business interests, and family connections that could ever come up in a board decision.
A workable rhythm, drawn from the way the Commission's own board reviews its equivalent register, is to revisit every trustee's entry once a year and whenever something changes — not because any rule demands an annual cycle, but because interests shift and a stale register is as much use as no register.
Keeping the official record straight
Registered charities have a plain legal duty here: "Whenever a trustee stops being a trustee you need to remove their details. If you get a new trustee, you need to add their details," using your My Charity Commission Account. Only names appear on the public register — other details stay private. This is easy to let slip because it feels administrative, but an out-of-date register is a compliance gap a funder or auditor can spot in minutes.
If your charity is a charitable company — registered at Companies House as well as with the Commission — there's a second, separate filing: notify Companies House of the new director using form AP01. Under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, all directors must also verify their identity to prove who they are — a newer requirement worth flagging to anyone joining a charitable company, since it can catch people off guard. Do this promptly rather than leaving it until the next round of paperwork; unincorporated charities and CIOs that aren't companies have no Companies House filing to make at all, since AP01 only applies if your charity is a company.
The Charity Governance Code — the sector's voluntary standard for how boards should operate — is worth pointing a new trustee towards for the fuller picture, though its own website is clear that "compliance with the Code is not a regulatory requirement": it's a practical tool, not law.
Do new trustees need a DBS check?
There's no blanket answer, and treating it as a yes/no question is where boards go wrong. Whether a new trustee needs a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check depends on what the charity actually does and whether the trustee's role involves what's defined as regulated activity — direct, unsupervised work with children or vulnerable adults, broadly speaking. The Charity Commission itself does not set or enforce the rules around DBS check eligibility; that sits with the DBS and the wider safeguarding framework, not the charity regulator.
The safe route is to check gov.uk's DBS eligibility guidance against your own charity's activities and your safeguarding policy, every time — not to assume a small charity is automatically exempt, and not to assume every trustee automatically needs one either. If your charity runs any activity involving children or vulnerable adults, this should be one of the first questions in induction, not an afterthought raised months in.
Common mistakes boards make
Running no induction at all. The most common gap by far. A new trustee gets a meeting date and nothing else, then spends their first few months guessing at context everyone else already has.
Treating the welcome pack as the whole job. A document dump isn't induction. The conversation — someone actually walking a new trustee through priorities and how the board works — is what makes the paperwork land.
Skipping the declaration. Boards that ask for a disqualification declaration months after someone's already been voting on decisions have got the order backwards. It belongs before the first meeting, not after.
Forgetting the register update. This is the one that quietly slips because nobody owns it. Assign it to a name on the checklist above, not to "someone will sort it."
We see this pattern often on small boards: the person who joined eighteen months ago still hasn't seen the governing document, because everyone assumed someone else had sent it.
Do this once, then let it run itself. Trustee Meetings is a simple board-meetings tool built for small UK charities. A new trustee joins by email invitation and finds the papers, policies and past minutes already there — nothing to chase down individually. Free until your first board meeting is done — no card, no clock running. Then £180 a year (or £15 a month), every trustee included. Try it with your board
Frequently asked questions
How long should induction take? There's no fixed rule — the Charity Commission's welcome pack simply frames it as the first few months. This guide uses roughly three months as a workable target, not a legal deadline.
Does a new trustee need a DBS check? It depends entirely on what the charity does and whether the role involves regulated activity. The Charity Commission does not set or enforce DBS eligibility rules, so check gov.uk's DBS eligibility guidance and your own safeguarding policy rather than assuming either way.
Who runs induction if we have no staff? By default, the chair or secretary — but every trustee is collectively responsible for the charity being properly run, so induction is really a board job that one person coordinates.
What if we've never done inductions before? Start now, and it's worth doing retrospectively for existing trustees too. It's good practice you're adopting, not an admission that anything was done wrong.
Does a new trustee sign anything before their first meeting? Commonly, a disqualification declaration and a first entry in the register of interests. Neither is unusual, and neither is a comment on the individual signing it.
Do we tell the Charity Commission every time our trustees change? Yes, if you're a registered charity. When a trustee joins or leaves, you need to update their details so the public register stays accurate.
This guide covers England and Wales for the Charity Commission and disqualification content — automatic disqualification rules do not apply to charities registered in Scotland or Northern Ireland, which sit under OSCR and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (CCNI) respectively. The Companies House filing (AP01) is UK-wide company law and applies the same way regardless of which charity regulator you're under.
Read your first trustee board meeting for what to do the night before you actually sit down at the table, what charity minutes should include for the record-keeping side, or a trustee meeting agenda template to see what a well-run agenda looks like. Browse the full guides library for more, or get started free with your own board.